Friday, September 21, 2012

Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) may have won a billion
dollars as damage compensation in a lawsuit against Samsung in the U.S, but
Apple seems to be having no such luck with the German jury. On Thursday, the
Mannheim Regional Court ruled against Apple and did not agree to the company’s
claim regarding the Android devices infringing upon the company’s patent with
respect to multitouch devises and how they handle the ‘touch events’.

The court declared that Samsung and Motorola, the
companies against whom Apple had pressed charges, were not guilty of
infringement at all. The two companies claimed that Android does not possess a
multi-touch flag in each and every UI window. This was against the claim by
Apple by bringing out its European patent, for a Touch event model. They fought
on the basis of how a device’s software acknowledges or ignores touch events
which is very important a factor for the system supporting multitouch.

Apple has not been looked upon very favorably by the
German court event during previous trials and Florian Mueller from FOSS Patent
brought to attention, the fact that Samsung fought well for the case, and as a
result, it was obvious that they would come out victorious. Judge Andrea Voss,
who had been the head of the Panel, had agreed with the defense, namely,
Samsung and Motorola. Samsung had put forward its objections regarding Apple’s
suggestion that they cover the legal fees for Samsung. This forced the former
to move to the next level of hearings.

HTC also won a fight against Apple in the High Court
of England and Wales when the court decided that Apple’s IP was invalid. The
European patent the company asserted in the case of the trial in Germany was
EP2098948 but the judge ruled against the claims made by the company.

What with cutting-edge technology being introduced
every other day, and smartphones trying to outdo one another, all the big
brands are fighting tooth and nail to try and gain one up over one another.
Apple, HTC, Motorola and Samsung are all big companies, vying for the top-most
spot when it comes to the best smartphone in the market.